Recent advances in portable electronics allow portable electronic devices to be carried most anywhere. As such, these devices may be subjected to various environments and conditions which are hostile to the materials used to construct these devices. In particular, the outer surface of a portable electronic device, such as the screen portion, may be subjected to scratching or surface abrasions. Traditionally, glass has been used to protect portions of the outer surface such as the screen portion, which may become scratched or broken when subjected to normal use.
In some cases, a harder and more scratch resistant surface, such as sapphire may be advantageous as compared to traditional glass materials. However, the use of sapphire as a component may present challenges over conventional silicate glass. In particular, the quality of sapphire as a raw material may be highly dependent on manufacturing conditions. In some cases, it may be beneficial to track the manufacturing conditions or process parameters as a sapphire component is being made.
Further, use of synthetic sapphire crystal, as compared to glass, in fabricating components for electronic devices may result in much greater variability of the resultant material and defects from the manufacturing process. In order to ensure product quality control it may be useful to track information such as manufacturing characteristics related to each step of the process in order to improve process operations and provide production control. Because the surface of the sapphire material is removed multiple times during the production process, surface marking of the sapphire can be unsuitable for use as a tracking method.